Kansas fallout: Wipro, Cognizant issue advisories, tell Indian techies in US to be on guard

NEW DELHI: When Sudipta, an IT engineer working for Wipro in Houston, Texas, returned home after a weekend outing, he found his home ransacked and items broken. The incident led to Wipro issuing an advisory, similar to the ones the US issues to its travellers who visit sensitive countries, according to a report in BusinessLine. The email states that the advisory is to sensitise (Wipro’s) onsite employees to be watchful of the situation, says the report.

Another IT major, Cognizant, is also learnt to have sent an internal email advising employees to be on the guard, according to the report.

There is a palpable fear among engineers of Indian-origin working in the US who number nearly one lakh.

Ransacking of Sudipta's home is one of many recent attacks on Indians in the U.S. Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian engineer in Kansas, was shot dead by a man who yelled “get out of my country”. Days later, Harnish Patel, the owner of a convenience store in Lancaster County, South Carolina, was found dead of gunshot wounds in the front yard of his home. An Indian man’s home was vandalised with eggs, feces and racist graffiti in Denver a few weeks ago.

After Kuchibhotla's killing, the Telangana American Telugu Association, too issued an advisory to Indians on how to behave in public in the U.S. It advised Indians to avoid speaking in their native languages which could be misconstrued by others.

The issue of attacks on Indians in the U.S. also rocked the Parliament on Thursday. Political parties on either side of the aisle expressed concern over racial attacks on Indians in the US. The opposition wanted the government take up the matter immediately with the Trump Administration.